Tuesday, 27 August 2013

This morning I decided that I will keep
myself updated on the recent Mumbai gang-rape case till the case gets solved. While
brushing through the newspaper, I came across a very good topic — Case fast-tracked, but no guarantee of quick
verdict. Inside that feature, there was a mini related story - No Time Limit For Such Cases, Say Experts
and I was taken aback after reading it. The article discusses about whether the
case will get a quick verdict or not. And after reading the whole report, I was
angry, disgusted, frustrated (etc). I felt the government in the name of
fast-track court has been conning the people. Why? Here it goes...

What
are fast-track courts?

According to Times of India, the union
government started the scheme in 2001 in a bid to prevent important/shocking
cases from ending up at the end of the huge case queue & to cut pendency of
cases. Once a case is sent to a fast-track court, it is expected to be heard on
a day-to-day basis.

I did a Google search. One of the results
I got was - Effectiveness of India's 'Fast-Track' Courts
Questioned.

While the intention behind the
institution of fast-track court was noble, the results have been disappointing.
Some of the famous fast-track court cases in India are – 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack,
Amboli double-murder case, Pallavi Purkayastha case, Shiney Ahuja case, etc.
(As mentioned by TOI) Among these four
cases, the only case whose judgement has been passed is the 26/11 Mumbai terror
attack. Ajmal Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist caught alive, was sentenced
to death after 17 months of the crime. Was justice served to the fullest? I
guess not. The mastermind, whose plot it was, is yet to be caught. Kasab and his
nine other accomplices were just acting on orders.

The Amboli double-murder case is still
pending. Keenan Santos (24) and Reuben Fernandez (29) were stabbed to death for
protesting the harassment of a woman on October 20, 2011. The case is still on
in special women’s court as it nears three years of the anniversary.

A year back, Pallavi Purkayastha was
murdered by security guard Sajjad Mughal. The case initially was fast-tracked
but it is in a special women’s court now.

These are just few of the famous cases.
The Amboli case had created a lot of outrage. So did the Purkayashtha’s case.
Yet, judgement is yet to be passed in these cases.

How
many fast-track courts are there in Mumbai?

According to TOI report, there are five
fast-track courts in Sewri, out of which three are functioning from the city
civil and sessions court building in Kala Ghoda as the Sewri premises are
hosting Mazgaon metropolitan courts since July. The report further mentions the
state had recently constituted special fast-track courts with women judges and
all-female staff for crimes against women. Since the Sewri fast-track court did
not have any women judges, about 26 such cases were piled on special court in
the city civil and sessions court. Among those are the 2011 Amboli
double-murder case and Pallavi Purkayastha case.

According to a report in India Spend earlier this year, there are
about 1,200 fast-track courts in India but 6,00,000 cases are still pending.
Here is the link - http://bit.ly/1dlZJR8

Fast-track
courts doesn’t do justice to the cases

While going through the Google searches,
in many of the articles I found that the fast-track courts don’t do full justice
to the cases. According to a report in Voice
of America, Colin Gonsalves, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of
India and the director of the New Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network, said he
does not think the fast-track courts are an effective way to fix the problem.

He is quoted as saying, “People who have
worked in the fast-track courts are generally very upset by the declining
standards of these courts and have defined it as 'fast-track injustice.' These
courts are given unrealistic targets of cases to finish. They have been told
they ought not get involved in too much technicality, and that broadly if they
get a feeling that a person is guilty, then declare him guilty and if he is
innocent, then declare him innocent. But that's not how the criminal justice
system works. It requires care and attention. Decisions are not made on the
basis of hunches and guess work, which is what the fast-track courts turned out
to be. Judges (were) cutting down on evidence, not allowing full
cross-examinations, proceeding in the absence of lawyers in many cases. It was
in many respects not a very satisfactory system for delivering justice.”

Here is a report by BBC, which questions
the effectiveness and injustice involved in fast-track courts - http://bbc.in/12H4QV1

Even Reuters discusses the effectiveness
of fast-track courts - http://reut.rs/1dL4KQZ

What are the fates of these cases?

What
are the solutions?

A fast-trial means a lot of money is
involved and need of enough judges to solve the cases. With almost six lakhs
cases pending, Government of India either needs to buckle up and reassess their
plans or just drop the term fast-track.

Firstly, Colin Gonsalves says India, a
developing country needs 60 judges per million. Currently we have 12 judges per
million. (Here is the report - http://bit.ly/1dlZOEw)

Secondly, you need plenty of funds to
tackle the problem. The government recently allocated 80 crores for the appointment
of judges. Another 2,800 crore has been set aside for setting up of court
infrastructures that can be used to open fast tract courts (According to TOI).

Conclusion

Having mentioned all these from a
layman’s POV, it is in the hands of the judicial department and experts to come
up with effective solutions to tackle the problem. Fast-track cases in India
haven’t really been fast-tracked. There is huge gap between idea and
implementation. Nobody wants to wait for 11 years to get justice (It took 11
years to release the verdict in the Jessica Lal murder case, that too after
much media pressure).

I spoke to one of my lawyer friends (though
he is a cricket journalist now). He said one of the main reasons for judicial
system failing is that just like our lazy system, our lawyers tend to delay the
process. Also, they have an intention of delaying the case and getting their
pockets filled to the fullest. Plus the problems of fewer judges and less fund
are there. And lastly, he remembered a quote by Ram Jethmalini — Justice
hurried is justice buried.